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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

More on the role of innovation from Jon Stewart

After writing today's post, I sat down to watch last night's episode of the Daily Show. Jon Stewart's guest (William Rosen) is the author of a book about innovation called The Most Powerful Idea in the World. For the economically-inclined, this topic is fascinating. Here's the interview:

The reason it took so long is not a lack of ingenuity or inventiveness. There's a famous quote from ... that says "The most important invention of the Industrial Revolution is invention itself." The literal meaning of which is obviously false as those steam engines of the 1st century would testify, but invention is a very different kind of activity for those centuries leading up to the 18th century. For one thing, it is a really lousy way to make a living.

As Stewart breaks it down, "Once the idea that ideas could be yours and you could own them, that's what opened the flood gates." Sounds like a great book to me.